Blues boss Paul Jewell returns to his old club Derby today looking to prove a point to Rams fans but more than anyone else to himself. The Town manager endured a torrid spell at Pride Park between November 2007 and December 2008, winning only 12 of his 58 games in charge.

Jewell is under no illusions about how he is regarded by Derby supporters: “I think you have to prove yourself to [the fans of your old club]. If you talk to Derby fans about their managers, I’d be down the bottom of that list.

“I think I have to prove it to myself, this is why I took the Ipswich job because I think it’s a club which has got a long-term vision and somewhere where I got excited about trying to prove myself again.

“I think you have to do that. No one’s that good that you stop thinking you have to prove yourself, even Sir Alex.

“Every day he’ll be wanting to take on a challenge and prove himself better. I don’t [only] want to prove that to Derby fans, I want to prove it to myself that I’ve got it in me.”

He admits his time at Pride Park didn’t ever get going: “In fairness, at Derby we never really got off the ground. I went there when we were in the Premier League after 14 games and we had five points and the rot had set in. The team wasn’t quite up to Premier League standard.

“I had a brilliant chairman, Adam Pearson [now head of football operations at Hull City], but obviously the Americans took over and there was always a little bit of politics. I didn’t get involved in it but there was always little bits and pieces going on.

“I have huge respect for Derby as a club because it’s a club that because of its facilities and its support, like us and a number of other teams, deserves to be challenging for the Premiership.”

The Blues boss makes no excuses for failing to replicate the success he had previously enjoyed at Bradford and Wigan while with the Rams: “I think at the end of the day, sometimes as a manager, whatever you do, sometimes it just isn’t working at a club. We’ve all had success in our lives, we’ve all had failures.

“I’m not hiding behind the fact that I wasn’t successful there, I can’t hide behind it. There were a few mitigating circumstances but I wasn’t successful there.

“I move on, I wish Derby all the best because I’ve got huge respect for the place, but I’m the Ipswich manager and I want to be Ipswich manager for a long time.”

Jewell, who coincidentally resigned as Derby manager after a 1-0 defeat by Town, says both clubs will be looking to end their seasons on a high note, despite the play-offs appearing out of reach: “We want to have a strong end to the season, I’m sure Nigel Clough’s exactly the same. We want a strong finish to try and keep up the momentum that we have gathered over the last two months.

“We’ve had a really tough season both on and off the pitch, different things seem to have gone against us, but we’ve come out the other side and we’ve come out the other side better, stronger and better equipped as a team to make a better pitch next season.”

Photo: Action Images

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Players and coaching staff should be banned from talking about "Premier League facilities, ground, set up etc" we are not a PL club as we are not in that league lets concentrate on getting there then start going on about it. Aside from that I pray PJ proves himself here.

Never realised he resigned from Derby. Fair play to him. Not many managers will walk as they get no pay off. Do think he's a genuine bloke. Hopefully he can turn us into a serious force and become a town legend. See what happens over next few years i guess . . . . .

Jewell did an terrible job at Derby and Sheffield Wednesday for that matter.

I hope he does well for us, but I truely don't beleive he is good enough. I think he will year on year deliver mid to lower table. He will also deliver some good results/performances - but also some really abysmal ones. Of course that will be more than acceptable for the vast majority of ITFC fans and that's great. But I think we could do better than PJ.

Nearly every experienced manager, even the top ones, have had clubs which they struggled at. It's a tough job and when you take on a club in a massive struggle like Derby I doubt that many managers would have turned them round. So, Jewell failed at Derby and Sheff Wed but he was a massive success at Bradford and Wigan and has two promotions to the Premier League on his CV which is a great achievement for a 47 year old. Hopefully he can replicate that for us and the signs are positive at the moment that we are heading in the right direction.

Jas0999 has done a terrible job. His performances on the bulletin board have been abysmal and he was probably quite the Roy Keane fan for many months until his awfulness proved itself. As Paul Jewell stakes his claim and his own players and choices improve the team, critics like Jas hold onto a negative thoughtfulness that is good enough for some fans but not many. Progress is made by sacking the Roy Keanes of this world and finding skilled managers with something to prove and a club to fit in with. Jas0999 needs to wake up to a future with Mr. Jewell. You will be forgiven.